Impact

1. Political Impact
A. The first president in American history, Richard Nixon, resigned from his presidential

office.

B. President Ford, formerly vice president under Nixon, removed tape recorders from the oval office.
C. A bad relationship developed between the White House press core, and media in general,

and politicians.

D. As a result of Watergate, the courts threw more than 40 people in jail.

2. Journalism Impact
A. Journalism schools saw a rise in enrollment.
B. News organizations pursued more investigative style reporting.
C. Journalists came to be seen as the “good guys”, "the cool kids," and even as celebrities.
D. Salaries in the journalism industry rose.
E. Woodward became the assistant managing editor of the Post. The "Woodstein" team made a lot of money from the book and movie, “All The President’s Men.”
F. negative: journalists saw Watergate everywhere, meaning they tried very hard to find scandals and bring down politicians
G. made use of anonymous sources acceptable


3. National Impact
A. Watergate damaged the public's faith in politicians.
B. Although the Watergate story had already broken, Nixon won his re-election bid in November 1972, he had to resign from office a year later.

C. People became more interested in the private lives of public figures, especially after the public came to see Nixon as "an evil-mouthed asshole."

Jerry Seib, executive Washington editor of the Wall Street Journal, summarizes Watergate's impact after Mark Felk's death.